Final Fantasy XV: What we're all thinking

[Bolivar]

As put-off as I am with the announced details, I'm mostly aggravated about how mainline Final Fantasy had been mismanaged and de-prioritized, starting with Final Fantasy XII. This used to be a near-annual franchise with different teams, the bread-and-butter that allowed Square to experiment with other projects. Now, those smaller mobile projects are the focus (yet with the FF name tacked on) while main Final Fantasy titles are 5-6 years apart, with shifting teams who only work on it when they can no longer ignore the public. Case-in-point: XIII's leads admitting they had no idea what the game was going to be like until they were obligated to deliver a demo for the Advent Children Blu Ray.

They have failed to transition the series into the post-Sakaguchi era. Yoshinori Kitase is arguably the greatest game director of all time but he has undeniably failed to fill Sakaguchi's shoes as a Producer. If Hideo Kojima is still directing video games, Kitase needs to be knocked off his pedestal and go back to making video games. That "FF Quality Committee"is a disgrace. Tabata and Toriyama are great developers but they just are not of the same caliber as FF'S past leaders, some of whom still work for the company like Ito and maybe Minagawa, both of whom's absence on any such committee is a bad omen.

I understand Japanese gaming culture had changed and Square had adapted accordingly, but I feel such a large company should be able to have both its domestic portable library along with a dedicated console focus internationally. As a fan I would like to see them demonstrate a real commitment to Final Fantasy.

XIII was still a great game though!

[fat_moogle]

I'm still really looking forward to this game. At the end of the day it's been almost a decade and I'm just glad that things are starting to materialise! Sure it may not be the exact same vision that Nomura had in mind, but to me the new trailer looks phenomenal and I have faith that Tabata will deliver a solid experience; Crisis Core was good and Type-0 was well received so that must say something about him as a director.

The only thing I will say is that I'm a bit concerned about the battle system. From what we've heard it seems far too easy with this "hold one button to attack, another to defend". If that's truly the case then where's the challenge? That's literally the ONLY thing that's bothering me.